Loner: A Trooper's Tale
by RightWingGamer
Summary: A stormtrooper named Larson seeks revenge on an evil rebel general. WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE!
1. Chapter 1

**LONER: A TROOPER'S TALE**

Star Destroyers are not very well known for their cleanliness, but at the moment I am finding it hard to care. Even though we have caught womp rats rummaging though our supplies on numerous occasions, no one has said a word. The crew is simply too anxious for battle to care about such minor details. Today we are being landed on the planet Scolaris 7 to take out a Rebel base. It sounds straight-forward, but it never is. Scolaris 7 is not only a hide-out for the Rebellion, but also a well-known tourist attraction. We have been instructed to check our fire to minimize civilian casualties, but we all know that no one is safe in the heat of battle. It's even harder for me, as everyone else here has been in the service since the clone wars, a lot of them clones themselves. I had just come from the academy, people like to joke about the Imperial School of Marksmanship, but on the battlefield, we'll see who has the last laugh. One of the older clones, TK-702, we call him Scar thanks to the nasty calling card a Jedi left on his face, isn't making it any easier, "You think you're hot shit with your fuckin' name tag, private uh, Larson? The hell kinda name is Larson?", he said. I replied, "Hell of a lot better than TK-702". Scar paused for a second, before retorting "I got this name because I'm one of the originals." he then flexed his arm and said "See that? Genetic perfection. I've got the blood of the best fuckin' mercenary in the galaxy running though my veins." I scoffed, "He's dead, you know. Some Jedi cut his head clean off. Rumor has it, he's still buried there, his initials written with droid limbs. Perfection, my ass." Before Scar could respond, General Wurtz came on hologram. "Please report to your drop ships, we are entering the Scolaris system and will be leaving hyper-space in a standard hour." Scar looked at me and joked, "Looks like I won't hafta kill you after all. I'll just let the rebs do it." "I've heard awful stories about the tactics utilized by the rebels. What's it really like?", I asked. Scar's tone changed quickly, and he paused for 5 seconds, give or take, before replying to me in a quite serious manner, "It's fuckin' hell."

In the drop-ship, I had the misfortune of sitting next to Scar. At least I had someone to talk to. I could see the planet through the view screen, as well as the space battle between all the x-wings and TIE fighters. General Wurtz walked through the door to brief us on the situation, "Rebels under the command of General Kranos Lotlief are holding a total of 8,000 civilians hostage on Scolaris 7, and threaten to kill them all unless we release Luke Skywalker from prison. Skywalker is currently awaiting trial for crimes against the Empire on the planet --" He was interrupted mid-sentence by a loud boom near the back of the ship, followed by severe shaking. "WE'VE BEEN HIT!", the pilot shouted, as the ship started spiraling out of control. As we got closer and closer to the planet, I blacked out.

I woke up to the sight of a big, white helmet. It was yelling at me in an oddly distorted voice, "WAKE UP! WAKE THE FUCK UP!" As I regained consciousness, I realized that it was Scar's voice. "Don't die on me, Larson, you're not the only recruit in this fuckin' outfit." I smiled at him and replied "Did we win?" "Not yet, but if you're any good with a blaster, we will win." I grabbed my gun and joined the battle, before asking where General Wurtz was. "Dead", Scar replied. "Impact blew him to shit. This is Sergeant Zenn, he's in charge. He's that recruit I told you about.". The fighting seemed to last an eternity, then the ground started shaking beneath our feet. I looked back and saw at least a dozen AT-AT Walkers heading our way. "Hell yeah! Here comes the fuckin' cavalry!", Scar yelled. One of the AT-AT pilots contacted us through our helmet radios, "Sorry we're late to the party, boys. But we brought you a little present so there's no hard feelings." As the rebels started fleeing, my men and I got into the tank they brought us to chase them down. As we entered the city limits, Scar simply couldn't control his enthusiasm and started shouting at the rebels, "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-HAW! Yippee KI-YAY, motherfuckers!" He was right to be excited, for the rebels were dropping like flies. It seemed like we had this battle in the bag.

Hours later, the fighting had stopped, and the remaining rebels surrendered. In 5 minutes, we were gonna assault the rebel fortress where they're keeping the hostages. "So what's up with Zenn, how come he never talks?", I opened. "Fuckin' Wookiee tried to strangle him. He shot the bastard, but the damage was already beyond repair. The doctors were able to save his life, but he'd already lost the ability to speak.", Scar replied. "This is his last battle, then he's going back to his family on Coruscant. I betcha his kids are gonna be stoked to get their dad back. How about you, Larson? You got a family?" "Yeah, they're probably still waiting for me on Dantooine. I got a nice farm, some livestock, two adorable daughters, and a wife with the best ass in the fuckin' galaxy." I couldn't wait to see them again, it's been an eternity. I can still remember the last time I spoke to her over hologram. "I'm guessin' clones don't have families, eh, Scar?" Scar stared blankly for about 10 seconds, then replied "Not legally." Before I could ask any further, the Colonel started yelling "We ain't got all day, ladies. C'mon, those rebs ain't gonna kill themselves."

As we assaulted the fortress, things appeared to be going smoothly, until Scar said "This is a little too easy, feels like a trap." I scoffed and said "What makes you think it's a trap?" "I dunno, I've just never won a battle this easily before. Some thing's fucked up." "Well keep it to yourself, OK? I don't need you jinxing us." Before long, we noticed something odd. As we walked along, there appeared to be less and less cover, to the point of there being none at all. Then, we noticed that the alleys between the buildings were gone, and as we neared the fortress, someone pulled out a turret from the top window and started firing on us, and snipers on the rooftops started picking us off one by one as a firing squad kept us from retreating. Our only hope was to charge the fortress. "OH SHIT! I fuckin' hate it when I'm right!" Scar shouted. Once we reached the fortress, only a quarter of us survived, Scar, Zenn and I among them.

We sneaked through the hallways, checking every corner. As we inched towards the hostage area, we encountered about a dozen rebels along the way. We dispatched each one quietly and continued on our way. Things were starting to look up when we heard chatter through one of the doors. We quickly entered and cleared the area, and looked through the next doorway to see the hostages, all 8,000 of them, put in one huge pen. "Look!" I said, "In that balcony, it's Kranos Lotlief." Scar scoffed in disbelief for a second before saying "Son of a bitch. This war may be over sooner than we thought."

I couldn't believe it either. We've found the man who ruled the alliance in Skywalker's stead, and we have him trapped. If we were to kill him, it would end the war, end the violence, end the murder. Things were finally starting to look up, all we needed to do was snipe him, real quick. I told Zenn to get his sniper rifle out, and just as he had lined up the shot, Scar said "WAIT!". I was baffled, we have the opportunity to end the war with a single laser blast, and Scar is stopping us? Why wait? "What the hell is going on?", I asked Scar. He promptly replied, "Bastard's mine. Let's just say it's personal. I'm gonna get as close as I can, then I want Zenn to pick off the guards, but leave Lotlief to me." I sighed, this was neither the time nor place for revenge. But if Scar wants him that bad, he can have him. "Go ahead, Scar, but if he tries to escape, we're not gonna wait for you." Scar took out his knife, it looked like it was from Ryloth, rather than the standard issue knifes the rest of us are given, which come from Ord Mantell. It seems to have been used once before, as the blade is covered in blood. The blood is far from fresh, in fact, it looks so old and dry that the one time it was used could have very well been years ago. It must really mean something to him if he didn't clean it for that long. "What's with the knife?", I asked him. "My first kill. Poor bastard never saw me coming." I knew that was a lie, back in the Clone Wars, the only organics we fought were Geonosians, and they didn't even have red blood. "There's something you're not telling me, there's no way you could have gotten your first kill with that knife." Scar stared out into the open for a second, then said softly, as to end the conversation, "Never said I did." I had struck a nerve, he was noticeably more tense. You could tell something was bothering him, but what? Suddenly, he erupted, "Why don't you mind your own fuckin' business, okay? So do I or do I not have sniper support?" I nodded and told Zenn to cover him.

Scar started moving along the catwalks towards Lotlief. Once Scar was close enough, he signaled Zenn to take out the guards. Zenn lined up the shot, fired, and BAM! One less rebel. He then aimed at the other, held his breath, and fired, BAM! Now Lotlief was alone. Scar moved in for the kill, "Remember me, dick head?" As I moved a little closer, I could hear what they were saying. After Lotlief did some rant on clones, Scar gave a particularly interesting speech, "This knife's got a lot of history. It's got her blood, my blood, just need yours and I've got the whole fuckin' collection." Lotlief was unimpressed, "You clones think you know love? Bullshit! All that clones know about is death. You are coldblooded murderers, every single one of you." Scar was visibly angry, "MURDER?! YOU'RE ONE TO TALK, KRANOS, YOU'RE ONE TO FUCKING TALK! You would slaughter all those innocent people down there, just to cover your own fuckin' ass!" Once again, Lotlief was unmoved. "Necessary sacrifices in a battle for freedom. For every one I kill, hundreds of thousands are being saved. Can you say the same?" Scar paused for a second. "No, I can not. I've done a lot of horrible things in my life, but there's one thing I know for sure: I am a soldier, not a fuckin' monster. Can YOU say the same?" The room went silent, not a peep. Then, after around a minute, Scar decided he had something to say. "I've had enough of your fuckin' bullshit." He held up his knife, menacingly. "I'm gonna enjoy this." Scar lunged at Lotlief, knife in hand, but Lotlief dodged and slammed Scar in the back. Scar dropped his knife and tried to face Lotlief hand-to-hand, but he was no match. Things were getting too heated, I ordered Zenn to take the shot. Zenn pulled the trigger, but his gun misfired and blew up in his face. Zenn was alright, so we all charged in to help Scar. Lotlief saw us coming, so he gave Scar a mighty kick, stole his blaster and hid behind a terminal. We laid down suppressive fire to keep Lotlief from popping out while I helped Scar. He was alright, just a few cuts and bruises, so I brought him back behind cover. Our blasters were starting to overheat, so a lot of the men just decided to charge him and hope for the best. Lotlief saw them coming and popped out of cover, catching them by surprise. Lotlief fired upon the charging troopers, killing them all. All that was left was Scar, Zenn and I. Lotlief then retreated behind a door, locking it behind him.

I pulled out my standard issue First-Aid Kit to help Scar while Zenn hacked into the door. I asked Scar why he had a personal vendetta out on Lotlief, and this time he actually answered me. "Ah, what the hell? You're a good man, Larson. There's a chance I won't live past this battle to tell anyone else, so you might as well know." Scar took a deep breath and continued. "Remember how I said that 'legally' clones aren't allowed to have families? Well I never was too keen on rules, so after the battle of Ryloth I deserted my unit and married a Twi'Lek chick named Marrissa. She was the most beautiful woman in the galaxy, we thought nothing would ever come between us. When the Rebel Alliance seized the planet, we thought we were in the clear because the Empire would no longer be looking for me. In fact, we were anything but. When the Empire re-captured one of Ryloth's moons, the rebels started looking for imperial spies. One day, Kranos Lotlief came to our home with two of his best men and asked to see Marrissa. During the interrogation, she repeatedly claimed she was innocent, but Lotlief would have nothing of it. He left one of his men alone with her in hopes he would beat a confession out of her. She was being tortured, I had to do something. At one point, he took a knife out of a drawer and held it to her neck, demanding she tell him what he wants to know. I came in, snapped his neck, took the knife, and cut her loose. We tried to escape, but ran into Lotlief. I threw the knife at him, but the other rebel jumped in its path and saved him. Marrissa then jumped on him, biting and clawing, but Lotlief pulled the knife out of his friend's skull and stabbed her. I angrily charged at him but he slashed at me with the knife, which hit my face. He was about to finish me off, but a platoon of Stormtroopers arrived so he dropped the knife and ran. I managed to join said platoon, and have been hunting Kranos ever since. Oh, and yes, that IS how I got my scar. You don't actually think I took on a fuckin' Jedi, do you?"

Zenn nodded, signaling that he was done hacking the door, I had also finished patching up Scar, so we were ready. We grabbed our guns and prepared to charge the room. When Zenn pulled the switch, the door opened to a barrage of gunfire. We took cover and threw a thermal detonator, which took out half of the rebels. Scar spotted Lotlief and ordered us to cover him while he attacked. Once again he pulled out his knife and charged at him shouting "YOU'RE MINE, MOTHERFUCKER!" When Scar reached Lotlief, he jabbed the knife at him but Lotlief grabbed his wrist before he could stab him. Scar and Lotlief continued to struggle for several minutes, until Scar managed to grab the knife at which point Lotlief kicked him away. Scar slashed at Lotlief once more, but Lotlief grabbed his wrist again, this time directing the knife into Scar's gut. Scar was visibly in pain, blood was seeping out the bottom of his helmet as he was gasping for air. He leaned in towards Lotlief's ear and stuttered as he was trying to get his last words out. "F- f- f- f- f- f- fu- f- f- f-..." He finally took a deep breath and summoned the strength for one last insult. "fuck you." With that said, he fell to the floor, with blood all over his armor. Soon, he stopped breathing, and gave me one last look as his muscles relaxed and his body grew silent. Scar was dead.


	2. Chapter 2

I still couldn't believe Scar was dead. It all happened so suddenly. One minute, he was fighting Lotlief, the next, he was on the floor bleeding to death. For some reason, Zenn didn't seem to care, he just kept shooting at the rebels. He was obviously far stronger than me, because even though I could see a tear dripping down his chest plate, he kept fighting like the soldier he is. Scar would have been proud. This battle seemed to last far too long, every rebel seemed invincible, until Lotlief kicked Scar's helmet off, showing that infamous scar across his cheek, the blood dripping down his chin, and a weird smile on his face. Scar had a rather painful death, yet he embraced it. He knew it was his time, and his one regret was that Lotlief was still alive. I made a promise, then and there, that Kranos Lotlief would die by my hand. I swear, if it's the last thing I ever do, I will kill him for what he's done. At that moment, my thirst for revenge took control, and I burst out of cover and fired all my rounds like a madman. Seeing those rebels die was great consolation. Knowing that those responsible for Scar's death were meeting their end was all that I needed to keep going. For, at least in my mind, this was no longer about the Empire, the Jedi, the Sith, or the fucking Rebellion. This is about one thing, and one thing only: they brought this on themselves.

The rebels felt my wrath, and they started to retreat. I chased after them, still firing my blaster. Then, it happened. I felt a burning sensation in my back and everything started going dark. I looked back and saw Lotlief standing there with a gun. As I tried to attack him I fell forward and blacked out...

I woke up in a chair, my wrists bound together with force-binders. I looked up to see Lotlief talking to Zenn, who was also captured. To get his attention, I yell "YO! The fuck is going on?" It seemed to have worked, Lotlief turns, looks at me, and says "Ah, the family man. You're awake." I reply, "You laugh now, motherfucker. But when I get a chance, I will kill you with my bare hands. I will watch you suffer as you die a slow and painful death. I will rip you limb from limb and castrate you with your own fuckin' teeth!" Lotlief simply laughed at me. "Don't you see, Larson? There's not a fucking thing you can do. **I** have won and **YOU** have lost." He then pointed his gun at me. "So get, fucking, used to it" Just as he was about to pull the trigger, Zenn broke his binders and tackled him. The blaster fired and the shot ricocheted across the room before hitting my binders. I grabbed the blaster and pointed it at Lotlief, waiting for the perfect opportunity. Then, I saw it, Lotlief was sitting up, strangling Zenn. It was the shot I've been waiting for. But I hesitated, realizing that killing him wouldn't bring Scar back. I was trying to pull the trigger, but something was just holding me back. By the time I snapped out of it, Zenn was dead. I dropped the blaster, took off my helmet and started throwing up. Lotlief stood up, with blood all over his hands, and kicked me. "Imperial swine. Your friend should have known better than to attempt something like that. But for sparing my life, the least I can do is spare yours while I make the galaxy tremble in fear at the sound of my name. But first things first. GUARD!" Another rebel walked into the room. "Give him another pair of binders and let him bear witness to my first lesson for the galaxy." The guard cuffed me, and walked me to the railing. I could see the whole hostage area from there, and I turned my head to see Lotlief setting up a turret. As I realized what was happening, I tried to warn the hostages. "GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE, HE'S GONNA KILL YOU ALL!" "They can't hear you." Lotlief said "Too noisy." Lotlief took aim and fired on the hostages, turning their casual conversations into blood-curdling screams. Lotlief was sparing no one, women, children, even infants. The rebels blocked the exits and fired upon anyone who came close. It was an old-fashioned massacre, and Lotlief's men were sure to get it all on Hologram. I closed my eyes, I just couldn't take anymore. Near the end, I could hear a little girl screaming for her mother in Huttese, she screamed for about 7 seconds, then I heard a laser blast, and then she just stopped abruptly. At this point, my will had been broken, I was reduced to tears. 8,000 innocent people gunned down in cold blood is enough to break anyone. My voice was cracking as I made an attempt to speak, "You sick fuck...", I continued weeping like a child, "fucking bastard." Lotlief was still unscathed. "You're not seeing the big picture here, Larson." "OH! I SEE IT ALRIGHT! Some rebel fuck-face just slaughtered thousands of innocents and now he's gonna blame it on the fuckin' empire. Is that right, you shit-faced son of a bitch? IS THAT FUCKING RIGHT, MOTHERFUCKER?!" One of the rebels hit me with the butt of his gun, "Easy, hot shot." Lotlief signaled the guard to calm down. "No, Larson. The point is that the Emperor must learn that his oppression will not go unpunished." "So you take it out on people who had nothing to fuckin' do with it?", I interjected. Once again, Lotlief was unscathed. "Killing stormtroopers never sends a clear enough signal. This event is sure to hit the Imperials much closer to home. Just so you know, Larson, the Empire had a chance to prevent this, if they had just released Luke Skywalker from prison, all 8,000 hostages would be back on Coruscant right now. THEY are the monsters. THEY are responsible for the massacre." "Bullshit. It wasn't the Empire who captured them, and it wasn't the Empire who executed them." This time, he was pissed. "If that's how you want to play it, Larson..." He pulled out his blaster, "... I'm only gonna ask you once. Where is Luke?" I had no idea where Skywalker was, but even if I did, I wasn't about to tell him. Instead, I waited for one of the guards to walk up behind me, and told Lotlief "Blow me." As I grabbed the guard's gun, shot him, twirled it around quickly, and shot the binders. I was free.

In the ensuing firefight, I was able to chase Lotlief to his flagship, _The Demigod._ As I boarded to give him what he deserves. Unfortunately, I was ambushed by a squad of rebels who chased me into the cargo hold, where I was able to make my stand. I took cover behind a cargo crate as the rebels continued their volley of fire. After a while, I poked out and took a potshot, killing one of them. It would take far too long to kill them all like that. So I looked around for something to throw at them. I looked for while before I saw that there was a full barrel of highly explosive Tibanna gas packed between two crates. Some dickhead must have forgot to put it in carbonite, last mistake he'll ever make. I tried to make my way over to the barrel, shooting at the rebels whenever I got the chance, but there were just too many. I took my last thermal detonator and chucked it at them. They scattered like roaches and left me to the Tibanna. I ran to the gas before they had a chance to regroup, then readied the barrel to be rolled at them. I couldn't roll the barrel at them while they were firing at me or we'd all blow up, so I shot at them from behind cover, trying to get them to take cover themselves. After I managed to hit one, the rest hid behind crates as I finally gave them the Tibanna gas. When they realized what was coming their way, they attempted to flee with their lives, but I shot the barrel and blew them all to hell.

After that, I tried to rest and tend to my wounds, but Lotlief came on the hologram. "Paging Private first class Larson of the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps, 67th infantry platoon. I see you have made short work of my soldiers, but there's no way you can possibly take us all. I rushed to the Hologram machine and replied to him "I don't need to, asshole. As soon as you fly this ship into Imperial territory, I can use this hologram machine to contact the Empire. Then they're gonna send a fleet big enough to rape you and your ship and we all live happily ever after. The end, motherfucker." Lotlief just laughed and said "You want to be funny, Larson? How's this for comedy? Ensign! Set a course for Dantooine. We're gonna pay a very special guest a very special visit." I couldn't believe my ears, Lotlief was actually going after my family on Dantooine. "Leave them the fuck outta this, Kranos. This is between you and me." Lotlief just smiled his devious smile and said "What's the matter, Larson? No witty remarks, no clever comebacks? Now you know what you are dealing with and unless you surrender immediately your family will pay the price with their lives. Is that what you want, Larson?" For a minute, I actually considered surrendering, but I finally decided that there was no way he was gonna threaten my family and get away with it. This bitch is mine.


	3. Chapter 3

I grabbed my gun and looked around the cargo hold for something to give me the leg up that I so desperately need. I found everything from Tibanna-powered spacecraft bombs to highly-corrosive acid grenades, but if I attempted to use those aboard a spaceship, we'd all find ourselves floating home. Then, I saw it, an old-fashioned Dagobah slug-thrower and a full crate of high-explosive slugs. A slug-thrower is a gun that scatters dozens of pellets when fired, if I were to load it with these explosive slugs in place of the regular ones, each of those pellets would have the destructive power of a Thermal Detonator. Enough to blow the ass off every rebel motherfucker I see. Lotlief thinks he's the master of trap-setting, but there's one thing he forgot. Two can play at this game. I was ready to face anything the Alliance could throw at me, even Skywalker himself.

I made my way to the bridge, but came across a sizable rebel patrol. I shot at them with the slug-thrower and quickly took cover. After about 3 seconds, the pellets detonated, filling the entire corridor with fire and just barely missing me. After the fire went out, I continued towards the bridge, trying not to fire my slug-thrower again. When I finally reached the bridge, I aimed the slug-thrower at Lotlief and fired. He took cover and evaded the blast, but his men were all fried. He ran away like a coward and sent for more guards. This time, an entire army came at me. They all started firing at me, so I took cover and shot at them. After the obligatory 3 seconds, there was no explosion this time. I fired at them again, still nothing. I didn't know what was wrong, but I knew I was screwed.

In a last-ditch effort, I grabbed slug-thrower, as well as all my slugs and ammo belts, and just chucked them all at the rebs. Then I used my blaster carbine to ignite them. The result was the most breathtaking explosion I'd ever seen, I had to hurry out of the bridge just to survive it. In fact, I think it took a good hunk of the ship. I searched for Lotlief, but he was nowhere to be found. I ran back to the cargo hold to find another gun, but on my way I came across the comm room. By now, we were definitely in Imperial space, so I flipped it on and sent a transmission on all frequencies that included ship coordinates and proof that General Kranos Lotlief was on board. Someone was bound to get it, and when they do, Lotlief's gonna have hell to pay.

Back in the cargo hold, I managed to find a clone war-era flamethrower. Jackpot! In close-quarters, this would be enough to get the rebs running. But before I have a chance to start chasing Lotlief, he comes to me with at least a hundred men, all firing at me at once. I fired back with my blaster, since they were too far away to use the flamethrower, and I got a lot of them, but they just kept coming. Hours later, it became a tedious grind, pop out, shoot a rebel, take cover again, but I knew that one slip-up would be fatal, so I kept going. After another 2 hours, I had taken out at least half of them, but I was running out of ammo. As I loaded my last clip into my blaster, Lotlief ordered his men to stop firing. He shouted in my direction, "LARSON! I was hoping we could talk about this." Without popping out of cover, I shouted back "There's nothing to fuckin' talk about. You killed my friends and threatened my family, so I'm gonna kick your fuckin' ass." Lotlief chuckled, you could tell that that was the answer he was looking for, "Very well, Larson. Just don't say that I didn't warn you." His men started marching through the cargo hold, blasters in hand. With only one clip left in my blaster, I couldn't take them all. So I took my flamethrower, set fire to the nearest pallet of crates, and ran like a mynock out of hell. The fire spread quickly, soon enveloping the entire cargo hold. I could hear the rebels screaming as they burned to death. As I escaped the cargo hold, I heard a muffled explosion. The Empire was here, and they were firing on the ship. At first I thought that such a large Imperial fleet would have no problem destroying one ship, but then I looked out the window. This ship was enormous. I couldn't even see the end. I looked around for schematics, and it turns out that this ship is a whopping 700 kilometers long, that's almost as big as the new death star that the Emperor's building, it was armed to the teeth with 1000 blaster turrets on each side of the hull, and over a million crew members. The hull had at least 500 layers of cortosis, and there were fifty shield generators on the ship, making the shield near impenetrable. At least this means I can blow up whatever I want without worrying about getting sucked into space. I suddenly felt a large shaking, like something was wrong with the ship. I looked outside to see all the Imperial ships concentrating fire on the engines. Without them, the ship will crash into Dantooine. I had to wrap this up quickly, so I took my blaster and headed to the secondary bridge where Lotlief was commanding the ship.

As I entered the bridge, Lotlief instantly recognized me. "I'm guessing you're here to arrest me in the name of the Empire." This time I scoffed. "Arrest is too fuckin' good for you, Lotlief. Do you have any idea what you've done? DO YOU HAVE ANY FUCKING IDEA WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!" "Spare me the theatrics, Larson. If you're here to kill me, then just fucking do it." This time, he wasn't gonna escape. I raised my blaster and aimed at him. "This is for you, Scar." I said as I took a deep breath and firmly grasped the gun, ready to pull the trigger at a millisecond's notice. I finally fired the gun and heard the all-important _pew _noise. I looked and saw that Lotlief was still standing, I had missed. Then I realized why, the Empire actually **did **destroy the engines. We were going down.

I really needed to end this quick, so I tackled Lotlief and the struggle began. "How do you like that now, motherfucker?!" I yelled. I pummeled him with my fists, every blow a victory, until I heard another explosion. The shields were down. I kept hitting him for as long as I could, even when the ship started spiraling out of control. I rammed him into a wall and punched him repeatedly, savoring each hit. At one point, he collapsed to the ground and I was ready to deliver the killing blow. As I prepared to crush his skull, we suddenly crashed into the planet. I lost my balance and started tumbling every which-way until I blacked out.

I woke up, strangely enough, in my own house. I thought it was too good to be true, and as I discovered that I was tied to a chair, I came back to my senses. The rebels were making themselves at home, breaking my stuff, yelling at my children, and hitting my wife. They were barbarians in every meaning of the word. One of them noticed that I had awakened, and called for Lotlief. Suddenly, the entire house went silent, so quiet that you could hear the bugs outside, and Lotlief slowly approached me. "What a lovely home, Larson." he opened, "I've been thinking of getting one like this." I rolled my eyes and responded, "This isn't their fight, Kranos. This is between you and me. Leave my family out of it." He continued to pace menacingly, "But it's apparent that that no longer works. If it did, then I wouldn't be on this rural hell-hole, I would be liberating Coruscant with Luke Skywalker by my side." "Well keep dreaming, asshole. Even if I knew where Luke was, there's no way I'd tell you. You just keep making things more and more personal. I swear, Lotlief, if it's the last thing I fucking do, I, will, kill you." "Very well, Larson. BRING OUT THE GIRL!" The rebels brought my wife through the door, she was bound and gagged, with scars and bruises all over her face and her clothes torn. The rebels had ravaged her repeatedly, that much is apparent. There was a tear running down her cheek and blood down her leg. She couldn't stand the pain any longer, and neither could I. I looked into her eyes before making the fatal decision. "You win, Lotlief. I'll help you find Luke. Just leave them alone." Lotlief smiled, "Good. Untie him." A guard came and cut my ropes. "Now no tricks, Larson, or I splatter her pretty face all over the walls." At this point, I was done fighting. I had no tricks, no plan B, not even an insult prepared. I just walked to the table and tried to figure out where Skywalker was.

After a few hours, I was stumped, the Empire had done a terrific job of hiding him. Lotlief was getting impatient and started shouting "ENOUGH FUCKING STALLING! Tell me where Skywalker is or I slaughter them all while you watch." I tried to calm him down, "Please. I just need a little more time, just don't hurt them." Lotlief wasn't convinced, "The fuck I won't. I can just leave the bodies where they lay and no one will look for them." Then it came to me "That's it! No one will look! Ever since the rebellion abandoned Dantooine, it's been an area of zero importance. If the Empire were to hide Skywalker here with a minimal garrison..." Then Lotlief jumped in, "No one would think to look. It's the perfect hiding spot." I sighed in relief, "There, you know where Skywalker is, will you leave my family in peace, now?" Lotlief chuckled sinisterly "I made no such promise, Larson." I was appalled "You lying sack of shit! We had a deal!" "It's like I said before, Larson. Don't say I didn't warn you." He raised his blaster and pointed it at my wife. She screamed "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" As he mercilessly shot her in the face.


	4. Chapter 4

As she fell to the floor, I tried to catch her in my arms, but couldn't. I looked for Lotlief, but he was nowhere in sight, then I saw why. The Empire had finally landed and they were searching high and low for him. But by the time I'm done, there's gonna be nothing to find. But before I go after Lotlief, I must give my wife a proper burial. I picked her up in my arms and carried her outside, then picked up a nearby shovel and started digging. One of the passing troopers from the convoy tossed me a blaster and said "Hey! Less digging, more shooting." I didn't respond, nor did I pick up the gun. I just continued digging. Soon, I heard additional digging sounds. I looked up and saw that he was helping me dig the grave. "I know what you're feeling, bro. I've lost family, too." Once again, I didn't respond. "Name's Mike. What's yours?" "Larson.", I quickly replied. He continued, "So, Larson, you don't look like you're from our unit." "I'm not." "Then what are you doing here on active duty?" "She was my wife. Lotlief killed her." "I'm sorry, dude. If there's anything I can do to help-" "There is. I need a gun, and a speeder." "May I ask why?" "Lotlief's going to the abandoned rebel base. I'm gonna make that fucker pay." As we finished the grave, I carefully lowered her in and we started burying the body.

Later, I met with Mike and his squad-mates while the convoy rested for the night. I had apparently walked in at the end of a story, "... And that's when I realized twi'leks don't HAVE a third lek." I took my seat and was quickly acknowledged by one of the men, "So, Larson, word is you know where Lotlief's going." "I do." "I spoke with the general, we are prepared to assault the rebels with everything we've got. What better revenge than bearing down on him with half the Imperial military?" Although his offer seemed tempting at first, I reminded myself of what happened on Scolaris 7 the last time we tried to attack Lotlief with brute force. "No deal," I replied, "You don't know Lotlief the way I do. He's fuckin' psycho, but he's deadly efficient in combat." He was obviously skeptical, but he wasn't entirely in doubt. "Then what would you suggest, Larson?" "I will sneak in to the base and kill the more important personnel, then you men will attack them from all sides, flanking and overwhelming them, so you can capture Lotlief and bring him to trial for his crimes." I didn't believe the plan, myself. But I needed SOME way of getting the gun and the speeder. He was pretty naive, actually believing that THAT bit of idiocy was my plan. "Very well, you'll get your gun, and you'll get your speeder." Dumbass.

Dead of night, I got out of my cot and snuck over to the speeder bike. There was a trooper guarding it, making sure it doesn't go anywhere until morning. I approached him with a friendly tone, "Hey" He smiled and waved back. When I got close enough, I put my hand on his helmet and threw his head onto the speeder, knocking him out cold. He'd be alright by morning, but he won't be needing his gun right now. I grabbed his blaster and got on the speeder, ready to speed off into the night. I pushed down on the pedal and I was off on my way to the rebel base.

As I entered the abandoned rebel base, I checked to see if Lotlief had gotten here first. I peeked around a corner and sure enough, an entire platoon of rebels. Since there was no way I'd get through them in one piece, I kicked a grate and started crawling through a vent on my way to the prison area. As I crawled, I started to hear chatter amongst the rebels. Eventually, I heard blaster fire as Lotlief started executing prison guards and before long, I could see Skywalker's cell, protected by all the remaining guards. I sat tight and watched while the rebels, led by Lotlief himself, killed the guards and freed Luke Skywalker. As Lotlief opened the cell door and let Luke out, he gave him a little speech. "It is my dearest pleasure to welcome back Commander Luke Skywalker, the inspiration to our great cause. The hero, the Jedi, the savior..." He raised his blaster to Luke's head menacingly "...and the martyr." and with that, he pulled the trigger and shot him in the back of the head. His men seemed perturbed, asking him questions like "What the fuck is your problem? You just shot Luke Skywalker." "Skywalker is a farm boy with a fucking laser sword. The fact is that much of the galaxy worships him as a hero, so if he were to be killed, say by a stormtrooper, people would be waiting in lines to enlist in the rebellion. Isn't that more helpful than some religious nut that thinks he can move rocks with his mind?" Now it all made sense, he wasn't interested in Luke for military purposes, he just wanted a martyr to glorify the rebellion.

At that point, the vent failed and I fell to the ground. "IT'S LARSON, KILL HIM!", Lotlief yelled. I quickly got to my feet and took cover as they started firing at me. Lotlief took this opportunity to taunt me, "You won't get away this time, Larson. Twice I captured you and twice you got away, now I have learned my lesson. Now you will die by my fucking hand, and I will escape with the story of how you killed Skywalker in cold blood. I will get the glory and you will get the blame, and the empire will fall." Skywalker came to and grabbed his lightsaber off one of the guards. He turned it on and started killing Lotlief's men. Just as he had killed the last one, Lotlief shot him and he fell to the ground. He wasn't dead, but Lotlief was about to fix that. Lotlief broke one of his legs, and was about to step on his skull and kill him. I tried to shoot him, but my gun had jammed. Instead, I tackled him and yelled "Gotcha, motherfucker!" and I started hitting him repeatedly. "This is for Scar" _BAM! _"This one's for Zenn" _BAM! _"For my wife" _BAM! _"For Marrissa" _BAM!_ "And this is for the innocents of Scolaris" _**BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! **_But before I could finish him, he grabbed me and started choking me up against a support beam, "And _this _is for Alderaan." While he was choking me, Luke woke up and reached for his lightsaber. He finally grabbed it and prepared to throw it to me. "Yippie ki-yay, motherfucker!", Luke yelled as he tossed me his saber. It flew through the air, almost in slow motion, as I finally caught it and pointed it at Lotlief's face, activating it just before he knew what hit him. The blade emerged from the metallic hilt and impaled him right between the eyes, killing him.

As Lotlief fell dead, I helped Luke to his feet. As a Jedi, he can stand far more pain than the average man, so his leg shouldn't be a problem once he starts moving. "Look, Lotlief's men are gonna come down here," I warned, "I want you to get the fuck out of here while I create a distraction." I reached into my bag and picked up a letter I wrote before entering the base. "Here, you'll find a farm house at the coordinates on the envelope, give it to my kids." The letter tells them how to get to Coruscant so they can live with Zenn's family. Luke took the letter and pleaded me "Give it to them yourself. I can get you out of here." I shook my head, "No, I'd only slow you down. You've got to get past Lotlief's men as well as the Imperial army. You'd best get started." Luke said "May the Force be with you." and started leaving.

I unjammed my weapon and awaited the inevitable. Soon I heard pounding on the door and the rebels blew it open and started shouting at me "DON'T MOVE, DON'T FUCKING MOVE! DROP YOUR FUCKIN' WEAPON!". At that moment, time just seemed to freeze as I looked around, I could see Scar and Zenn, I could see my wife, I could see Marrissa, I could see the people from Scolaris 7 as well as all the men from my unit. I knew that my time has come to join them, and as a final act of defiance, I aimed at the rebels and fired...


End file.
